Tag: Medicaid expansion

Georgia Sues Biden Administration over Objections to Gov. Kemp’s ‘Pathways to Coverage’ Medicaid Expansion

Tom Pappert

The State of Georgia and Georgia Department of Community Health (GDCH) launched a lawsuit on Friday against the Biden administration over its objections to Governor Brian Kemp’s limited Medicaid expansion, the Georgia Pathways to Coverage.

Georgia, the lawsuit explains, entered into a five-year agreement with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to implement Pathways, but in January 2021, CMS told Georgia it “preliminarily determined” the program was “unlawful and should be suspended.”

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Wisconsin Is Outlier Among Great Lakes States for Medicaid Expansion

The Center Square

Wisconsin is the only Great Lakes state that hasn’t adopted Medicaid expansion, according to a report from the Kaiser Family Foundation.

KFF has tracked states’ expansion of Medicaid. It found that Iowa, Michigan and Minnesota have adopted and implemented Medicaid expansion. Iowa and Michigan implemented expansion in 2014, while Minnesota expanded it at the beginning of 2015, the report found. Iowa and Michigan are among seven states that have approved Section 1115 waivers from federal laws to operate their expanded Medicaid expansion programs. The other states are Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Montana and Utah.

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Commentary: Medicaid Expansion Fails to Deliver on Promises

RealClearWire

Medicaid expansion is failing states across the nation according to a recent Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) report. The report found states that have expanded Medicaid have faced more hospital closures than states that haven’t expanded the program. Of course, for years, advocates have claimed that expansion would be a necessary provision for financial health and job security for hospitals. Though, as suspected, data reveals the opposite. More accurately, non-expansion states have seen improved profitability, a larger bed capacity, and increased job growth. 

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Dozens of Hospitals Have Closed in States That Expanded Medicaid, Research Shows

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Medicaid expansion has failed to prevent hospital closure, with almost 50 shutting down in expansion states since 2014, according to research given exclusively to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The research from the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) indicates that while Medicaid expansion was intended to solve hospitals’ finances and job shortage, its “empty promises” have done the opposite, report author Hayden Dublois wrote. Hospitals instead have had to shut their doors, lost thousands of jobs and racked up substantial losses, amounting to a loss of almost 5,400 beds.

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Lieutenant Governor Entertains Possibility of Expanding Medicaid

Corinne Murdock

Lieutenant Governor Randy McNally (R-Oak Ridge) appears to have a change of heart on the possibility of expanding Medicaid in Tennessee. According to reports, the White House’s latest plan to expand subsidized coverage caught McNally’s fancy.

Via the American Rescue Plan, President Joe Biden promised that if states expanded their Medicaid programs they’d receive more federal dollars to cover the program. McNally’s spokespersons have indicated that he is open to this option.

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Wisconsin Panel Recommends Historic Funding Increases for Health Services, Nixing Medicaid Expansion

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by Bethany Blankley   The Republican-led Joint Finance Committee (JFC) is recommending a record $1.63 billion two-year budget for the state’s Department of Health Services – an increase of $588 million in state General Purpose Revenue (GPR) than under former Gov. Scott Walker. The cornerstone of Gov. Tony Evers’ budget proposal, Medicaid expansion, was squashed. Medicaid expansion was one of the first non-fiscal policy items the JFC nixed, at the bewilderment of Democrats. State Rep. Evan Goyke, D-Milwaukee, said Republicans were “screwing over” his city. “The Medicaid expansion is intimately tied to the Democrat’s proposal and how it plays with federal funding,” he said. Republicans disagreed. “We have said all along expanding Medicaid wasn’t necessary based on where we were,” JFC co-chair Rep. John Nygren, R-Marinette, said. “The Republican legislative leadership acted in the best interest of the state of Wisconsin when it rejected, once again, the effort to expand Medicaid,” CJ Szafir, executive vice president at the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL), told The Center Square. A WILL study concluded that Medicaid expansion would result in increased costs to Wisconsin families with private insurance by $177 per year, up to $700 for a family of four, and cost…

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Millions in Fraud Missing From North Carolina Medicaid Expansion Debate

A.P. Dillon

Every major North Carolina Democrat, including Governor Roy Cooper, is focused on pushing for the expansion of Medicaid. Cooper included Medicaid expansion in his budget and in his State of the State speech. In both instances, the tax hit to North Carolinians went unaddressed by Cooper but not by state lawmakers. “Governor Cooper is pushing this idea that his Medicaid expansion proposal is revenue-neutral to the state, but that idea is just not based in reality,” said Senate Leader Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) in a press release. “There is no such thing as ‘free’ money, someone always has to pay. In this case, it’s the taxpayers in the private insurance market who at the end of the day will pay the price of this new tax to fund expansion.” Part of the argument to expand is a ‘but the other states are doing it’ argument. As of February 2019, 36 have expanded Medicaid and 14, including North Carolina, have not. What the current debate on the topic has left out is the millions of Medicaid fraud cases each year. According to the North Carolina Department of Justice, settlements in Medicaid fraud cases have totaled over $65.5 million just in the last…

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State Rep. Timothy Hill: Medicaid Block Grants Are the Conservative Way to Expand TennCare Coverage

Laura Baigert

NASHVILLE, Tennessee – State Representative Timothy Hill is sponsoring HB 1280, which is the first step in the process of requesting Medicaid block grants for the funding of TennCare. The main reason Representative T. Hill is bringing the legislation, he told The Tennessee Star, is that block grants are the conservative way to expand the coverage that TennCare provides. Senator Paul Bailey (R-Sparta) is sponsoring the companion bill SB 1428 in the State Senate, where the measure already has 22 Republican co-sponsors, including Lt. Governor McNally, of the potential 25 Republican State Senators. Representative T. Hill explained that, in doing research, “we found the block grant concept is not new – President Reagan tried it in 1981, Newt Gingrich in the 90’s and was almost successful, and now President Trump has expressed interest for this concept.” “So, Senator Bailey and I feel like it’s the right time to try it again and to try it from the State’s perspective,” continued Hill. Hill doesn’t know how many other states are attempting to take the block grant approach, which is “a fundamental shift in how you pay for the program,” as he put it. Hill said that with Tennessee being a very…

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Representative Diane Black Praises Trump Administration’s Call to Reinstate Medicaid Work Requirements

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The Trump Administration signaled Thursday that it would once again allow states to impose work requirements for some Medicaid recipients. Gubernatorial hopeful Representative Diane Black (R-TN-06) released a statement supporting the decision: As Chairman of the Budget Committee, I have pushed for work requirements for able-bodied, adult Medicaid recipients. I’m thrilled President Trump agrees and has announced he will give states the flexibility to create work-based health care programs that fit the needs of our individual states. I’m confident that we in Nashville know more about what the people of Tennessee need than bureaucrats in Washington. When I’m elected Governor, I will immediately request a waiver from HHS to allow Tennessee to impose work requirements for able-bodied, adult Medicaid recipients. It’s not just about protecting taxpayer dollars from fraud and abuse; it’s about creating a culture of work and the dignity that comes from that work. Having grown up in a family that had to work hard for everything we had, I know that work is the only way up in this great country. Black is currently well in the lead of the five-way field of Republican candidates vying to be the next governor of Tennessee, according to in the…

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House Democrats Pitch Medicaid Expansion on First Day of Tennessee General Assembly’s 2018 Legislative Session

Laura Baigert

  NASHVILLE, Tennessee – Tuesday marked the first day of the second half of the 110th General Assembly, and House Democrats followed Minority Leader and Democratic gubernatorial candidate State Rep. Craig Fitzhugh (D-Ripley)  in setting the tone for health care through Medicaid expansion. The first day of session is largely “feel good” and procedural in nature, as legislators come back together and move through standard agenda items in accordance with the House Permanent Rules of Order (page 3 – 4), as there is very little substantive business yet underway. A major portion of the session is what is known as “personal orders,” where members are recognized by the speaker to give a short personal message. Those messages are most often related to acknowledging a constituent, family member or other visitor. Fitzhugh, the first House member to be called on, said he wanted to set the tone for this session to health care.  The minority leader also spoke for the “fighting 25″ Democrats who, he said, support the expansion of Medicaid with the changes Governor Haslam will be making. Whether he was making a connection between himself and the governor’s office or pointing out that Medicaid expansion was the program of…

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